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Red Dead Redemption
}} | publisher = Rockstar Games | director = | producer = | designer = Christian Cantamessa | programmer = Ted Carson | artist = | writer = | composer = | series = Red Dead | engine = RAGE | platforms = | released = | genre = Action-adventure | modes = Single-player, multiplayer }} Red Dead Redemption is a Western action-adventure game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. A spiritual successor to 2004's Red Dead Revolver, it is the second game in the Red Dead series, and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2010. Red Dead Redemption is set during the decline of the American frontier in the year 1911 and follows John Marston, a former outlaw whose wife and son are taken hostage by the government in ransom for his services as a hired gun. Having no other choice, Marston sets out to bring three members of his former gang to justice. The game is played from a third-person perspective in an open world, allowing the player to interact with the game world at their leisure. The player can travel the virtual world, a fictionalized version of the Western United States and Mexico, primarily by horseback and on foot. Gunfights emphasize a gunslinger gameplay mechanic called "Dead Eye" that allows players to mark multiple shooting targets on enemies in slow motion. The game makes use of a morality system, by which the player's actions in the game affect their character's levels of honor and fame and how other characters respond to the player. An online multiplayer mode is included with the game, allowing up to 16 players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting. Red Dead Redemption was developed over the course of five years and is one of the most expensive video games ever made. The game received critical acclaim for its visuals, dynamically-generated music, voice acting, gameplay, and story, and shipped over 15 million copies by 2017. It won several year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, and is considered by critics as one of the greatest video games ever made. After the game's release, several downloadable content additions were released; Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, later released as a standalone game, added a new single-player experience in which Marston searches for a cure for an infectious zombie plague that has swept across the Old West. A Game of the Year Edition containing all additional content was released in October 2011. A prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, was released in October 2018 to similar acclaim. Gameplay Red Dead Redemption is a Western-themed action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls John Marston and completes missions, linear scenarios with set objectives, to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world. The player can interact with the environment and engage in combat with enemies, using various firearms. Different breeds of horses are the main forms of transportation, each with different attributes. These horses must be tamed in order to use them. The player can utilize trains for quick travelling, but they can also stop the train by threatening or killing the passengers or driver. The game's undeveloped land makes up the largest portion of the game world, featuring various rugged and vast landscapes with occasional travelers, bandits, and wildlife. Urban settlements range from isolated farmhouses to crowded towns. Besides the American West, the player can also traverse a fictional Mexican state bordering the United States. In addition to following the main storyline, the player will witness and can take part in random events they encounter as they explore the game world. These include public hangings, ambushes, pleas for assistance, encounters with strangers, ride-by shootings, and dangerous animal attacks. For example, if a group of people ride into town firing guns in the air, Marston can kill them, and will receive a bonus of honor and fame for protecting the town. The player can also take part in optional side activities, most of which give the player money. These side activities include dueling, in which the player must be a faster draw than their opponent; bounty hunting, where Marston can hunt down bounties on wanted posters; herb collecting, which involves gathering exotic plants from around the game map for town medics; gambling, where people can be found playing games such as poker and Five Finger Fillet; and hunting, in which the player can kill wild animals and skin their hides. Red Dead Redemption makes use of a morality system where players have the ability to gain positive or negative honor. Honor can be gained by making morally positive choices, such as taking in an outlaw alive or saving a woman from a kidnapping. The player's overall honor standard is lowered for committing crimes or other negative choices. This works in conjunction with another system, fame, which affects how people react based on Marston's honor status. If Marston has little honor, non-player characters will feel insecure around them. If they have a high amount of honor, other characters will usually greet them and feel safe around them. They will also receive discounts in some stores, more pay for jobs and other bonuses. A very low honor rating can result in a town's establishments closing their doors when Marston arrives. To combat this they can disguise themselves by wearing a bandana when performing criminal acts; alternatively, a very negative or criminal reputation warrants the player a large amount of respect and steep discounts from bandits and fencers at criminal hideouts, such as Thieves' Landing. Combat that lets the player hide behind objects and reach out to fire on people and animals.]] Gunfights are a major gameplay mechanic in Red Dead Redemption. The player can take cover, target a specific person or animal, blindfire, and free aim. Individual body parts can also be targeted, in order to take targets down non-lethally. When the player shoots an enemy, the game engine uniquely creates the AI reactions and movements depending on where they were hit. The player can choose from period-accurate weapons including revolvers, pistols, lever or bolt-action rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, knives, explosives, lassos, mounted Gatling guns, and cannons. Duels utilize a gunslinger gameplay mechanic known as Dead Eye. Dead Eye is a targeting system that is used in a bullet time-like manner, allowing the player to slow down time to place a precise shot or paint in multiple shots. When the targeting sequence ends, Marston automatically fires to all marked locations in extremely quick succession. Adopted from the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, Red Dead Redemption has a modified wanted system. When the player commits a crime, such as killing people near witnesses, some will run to the nearest police station. The player can either bribe or kill them before they reach the station, negating any consequences. If a crime is committed near a lawman or constable, the wanted meter immediately appears along with a bounty count which increases with each crime committed. The higher the bounty, the more lawmen will be sent after the player. If they kill enough pursuers, then either U.S. Marshals or the Mexican Army, depending on their location, will be sent instead. To evade law enforcement in pursuit, the player must escape a circular zone until the wanted meter disappears. Alternatively, the player can kill all lawmen in a town to have the wanted meter disappear. Regardless of whether they escape capture, a bounty is placed upon the player which will cause bounty hunters to come after them in the wilderness. It is impossible to surrender to these bounty hunters by putting away the player's weapon and standing still as they will kill them regardless. Only lawmen in towns and posses will accept surrenders. The law will continue to chase the player, unless they pay their bounty at a telegraph station or presents a pardon letter. When arrested, the player pays off their bounty, spends a certain number of days in jail depending on the severity of their crimes, and is then released. If the player does not have enough money to pay back the bounty, the law will assign bounty hunting activities to complete until enough money is earned. Multiplayer Red Dead Redemption includes online multiplayer with a maximum of 16 players per session. Every multiplayer game, both free-for-all and team based, will begin with a Mexican standoff. Survivors of the standoff will be able to move to any part of the battlefield in preparation for respawning enemies. Crates in the environment contain extra weapons, ammo, and other powerups. Players can level up and complete weapon challenges which earn them rewards such as new character models, golden weapon skins, new titles, and new breeds of animal mounts. Additional multiplayer modes were added via downloadable content (DLC). Stronghold is an attack or defend scenario, with teams switching roles as the round ends. It is included in the Liars and Cheats pack. The Undead Nightmare pack included two new games modes: Undead overrun mode, and Land Grab. It also included eight new zombie characters. The free-for-all and team versions of Shootout mode both follow a traditional deathmatch scenario where players or teams must accumulate the most kills. Many capture the flag variants are also available. Hold Your Own is a traditional mode where each team has to defend their bag of gold from the enemy team whilst capturing the other. Grab The Bag has both teams attacking one bag placed in a section of the map. Gold Rush is a free-for-all variant, trying to grab and keep as many bags as possible. The multiplayer portion Red Dead Redemption also features open world gameplay. All players in the server can form or join a group of other players, known as a posse, of up to eight players and take part in activities such as hunting or attacking computer-controlled gang hideouts or another player's posse. In some game modes, players are unable to kill other players. Synopsis Setting Red Dead Redemption spans New Austin and West Elizabeth, two fictitious states of the United States, as well as Nuevo Paraiso, a fictitious Mexican state. New Austin and West Elizabeth are adjacent to each other and share a southern border with Mexico. Nuevo Paraiso is a Mexican state, separated from U.S. territory by the San Luis River. The game takes place primarily in the year 1911, featuring the final decade of the American Frontier and the cowboy and outlaw archetypes that shaped it. The landscape of the Wild West is beginning to fade and modern technologies like automobiles, machine guns, and oil drilling projects are beginning to appear. Plot The game begins in 1911, where former outlaw John Marston (Rob Wiethoff) is taken from his family by Bureau of Investigation agents Edgar Ross (Jim Bentley) and his partner, Archer Fordham (David Wilson Barnes), and will only be granted amnesty when he brings the remaining members of his old gang to justice. John is escorted to the town of Armadillo, and sets off to track down former ally Bill Williamson (Steve J. Palmer). He confronts Williamson and his men at their stronghold, Fort Mercer, only to be shot and left for dead. Local rancher Bonnie MacFarlane (Kimberly Irion) finds him critically wounded and takes him to her ranch for recovery. Several days later, John begins performing tasks and favors for various allies in exchange for their help with organizing an attack on Fort Mercer. John and his group then breach the fort and defeat Williamson's gang only to find that Williamson has fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuella (Antonio Jaramillo), another former member of John's gang. In Mexico, John sides with Mexican Army Colonel Agustín Allende (Gary Carlos Cervantes) and his right-hand man Captain Vincente de Santa (Hector Luis Bustamante), to help end a rebellion in return for Allende delivering Escuella and Williamson to him. However, Allende betrays John, who then sides with the rebels. With the initial help of elderly gunslinger Landon Ricketts (Ross Hagen), John, along with rebel leader Abraham Reyes (Josh Segarra) and one of his lovers, Luisa (Francesca Galeas), eventually turns the tide in favor of the rebels, killing de Santa and launching an assault on the El Presidio fortress. They find Escuella, who attempts to bargain for his life by revealing that Williamson has been under Allende's protection. John is given the option to either kill Escuella or turn him over to the Bureau. John and Reyes then take the fight to Allende, where Luisa is killed while trying to protect Reyes. As Allende's palace is stormed by the rebels, both he and Williamson flee, but are apprehended and killed. Reyes then takes charge of the local government and plans to advance on the capital, while John leaves to meet with the Bureau in Blackwater. Ross and Fordham refuse to let John return to his family until he assists the Bureau in hunting down the only remaining member of his previous gang who is still active as an outlaw: its leader and John's surrogate father, Dutch van der Linde (Benjamin Byron Davis). John learns that Dutch has been forming a new gang of Native Americans, and after surviving several ambushes and thwarting a bank robbery, joins Ross, Fordham, and a group of U.S. soldiers in an attack on Dutch's hideout. During the assault, John chases Dutch up to a cliff, where the latter, mortally wounded, warns John that the Bureau won't let him have peace and then commits suicide by backing off the cliff. John is released from his deal and returns home to his wife Abigail (Sophie Marzocchi) and son Jack (Josh Blaylock). John devotes his time tending to the ranch, having sworn to keep himself and his family away from the outlaw lifestyle forever. However, true to Dutch's word, Ross double-crosses John, and leads a combined force of soldiers, lawmen, and government agents after him. John fends off several waves of attackers and gets his family to safety, but stays behind to hold back the rest. Despite a valiant last stand, he dies after being shot numerous times by Ross and his men, and is buried by his family on the hill overlooking the ranch. Three years later in 1914, following the death of his mother, Jack tracks down the now-retired Ross, and kills him in a duel, avenging his father and continuing the path of violence his father had tried to keep away from him. The fates of John's companions are later summarized in newspaper articles and NPC dialog: Reyes was consumed by power and became a tyrant, Bonnie MacFarlane eventually married, and Landon Ricketts died quietly in his sleep. Development Rockstar San Diego began to [[Development of Red Dead Redemption|develop Red Dead Redemption]] in 2005. Development was conducted by a team of more than 800 people, including Rockstar San Diego's core team and staff from parent company Rockstar Games' studios around the world. The game runs on the proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), which was improved for the game to improve its draw distance rendering capabilities. The Euphoria and Bullet software handle additional animation and rendering tasks. Having exhausted the use of previous hardware on previous projects, Rockstar felt inspired after realising the potential power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Analyst estimations place the game's combined development and marketing budget between US$80 million and US$100 million, which would make it one of the most expensive video games ever made. The open world was created to represent iconic features of the American frontier. Key members of the game world product team took research trips to Washington and the Library of Congress in their extensive research on the American frontier. They also captured a multitude of photographs, and analyzed various classic Western films. The team considered creating the open world one of the most technically demanding aspect of the game's production, in terms of filling the world with enough content to interest players. The team chose 1911 as the game's setting as they felt that exploring the transformation from "the old West" into a modern world was intriguing. The team viewed Red Dead Redemption as a spiritual successor to Red Dead Revolver, and designed it to improve upon the gameplay mechanics. They sought to maintain the shooting mechanic and expand on other game features, attempting to achieve realism with every feature of the game. In particular, the team faced a challenge in creating realistic movement for the horse, resulting in the engagement of a stunt horse to simulate movement for the designers. After an audition process, Rob Wiethoff was selected to portray John Marston. The cast's performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology, with additional dialogue and sound effects recorded in a studio. Red Dead Redemption also features an original score, which was composed by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, collaborating with each other over fifteen months. Rockstar also consulted musicians who played traditional Western instruments, such as harmonica player Tommy Morgan. Though a technology demonstration was shown in 2005, Red Dead Redemption was first formally announced by Rockstar Games on February 3, 2009. The debut trailer was released on May 6, 2009, introducing the game's protagonist. The game missed its original projected April 2010 release date, pushed back to May 18, 2010 to allow for further polishing. To spur pre-order game sales, Rockstar collaborated with several retail outlets to provide pre-order bonuses. These included exclusive in-game outfits, weapons and horses, as well as the game's official soundtrack. Additional content Post-release content was added to Red Dead Redemption as downloadable content (DLC) packs. Outlaws to the End, released on June 22, 2010, added six new cooperative side missions for the game's multiplayer. The Legends and Killers pack was released on August 10, 2010; it added eight multiplayer characters from Red Dead Revolver, nine map locations, and a Tomahawk weapon. The Liars and Cheats pack was released on September 21, 2010; it added competitive multiplayer modes and mini-games, additional characters from the single-player game and the Explosive Rifle weapon. The Hunting and Trading pack was released on October 12, 2010; it added a jackalope to the game's world, and some additional outfits. Undead Nightmare, released on October 26, 2010, added a new single-player campaign with ghost towns and cemeteries full of zombies; in the game's story, players continue to assume control of John Marston as he searches for a cure to the zombie outbreak. The Myths and Mavericks pack, released for free on September 13, 2011, added additional characters from the single-player campaign. A Game of the Year Edition containing all downloadable content was released for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, on October 11, 2011 in North America and on October 14, 2011 internationally. Additionally, Microsoft added the game to its backwards compatibility list for Xbox One platforms in July 2016. Reception | 1UP = A | Edge = 10/10 but retroactively changed the score to 10/10.}} | EuroG = 8/10 | GI = 9.75/10 | GamePro = | GSpy = | GT = 9.5/10 | GSpot = 9.5/10 | IGN = 9.7/10 }} Red Dead Redemption was released to critical acclaim. Review aggregator website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating in the 0–100 range, calculated an average score of 95 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 73 reviews for the PlayStation 3 version and 96 reviews for the Xbox 360 version. Commercially, the game has also been very successful. By August 2011, the game had shipped over 11 million copies, 2 million of which were retail units of Undead Nightmare. , Red Dead Redemption has shipped over 15 million units. Many critics praised the landscape, environment and graphics of Red Dead Redemption. Erik Brudvig of IGN lauded the environmental details, noting the player can even scare a flock of birds from the bushes as they ride past. He also noted that the game's dynamic events, weather and ambient sounds provide a rich experience for players. He summarized by stating "you can also expect a fantastic game that offers the Western experience we've all been waiting for." Game Informer called the scenery "breathtaking", and the cinematic cutscenes "vastly improved" over Grand Theft Auto IV, and named it the "best-looking Rockstar game to date". led to the scene being regarded as "perfect" and "beautiful" by gaming journalists. (0:30)|alt=Video sample of the game.]] The music, sound and voice acting in the game was also widely praised and spoken about. It won the Best Original Music and Best Voice Acting awards from GameSpot. When talking about the sound design of Red Dead Redemption, Game Informer said "From pitch-perfect gunshots to the daunting rumble of prairie thunderstorms, the remarkable attention to audio detail brings the world to life". Critics and reviewers spoke about the successful use of the game engine, and made similarities of the controls and physics to the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series. Game Informer said that Rockstar "transposed the Grand Theft Auto gameplay template onto a Wild West setting". Good Game reviewer Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen said that "Rockstar really looked at what people liked and didn't like in their game design from [Grand Theft Auto IV], and included it here". Eurogamer's Simon Parkin felt Red Dead Redemption successfully "re-clothes" the Grand Theft Auto framework in an "exciting, distinct and expertly realised scenario". The multiplayer aspect of Red Dead Redemption received mixed commentary from critics. GamePro s Will Herring praised the variety of multiplayer modes and the open gameplay, but noted that it put more responsibility on the players for keeping the game interesting. Justin Calvert of GameSpot also gave high marks for the game's variety of multiplayer modes, but felt that there was a lack in customization options for players. In a more critical view of multiplayer, Scott Sharkey of 1UP.com noted that games can suffer from griefing due to the open nature of multiplayer gameplay. He also criticized the leveling and unlocking aspects, noting that "The first few minutes spent as a toothless miner riding a balky mule can be pretty humiliating". G4TV's Jake Gaskill echoed this sentiment. He noted that the game often respawns players in a similar location to their death, which allows the killing player to repeatedly grief the other player. Rockstar has since added a feature which allows for players being griefed to transport to another area upon respawn. Accolades Since its release, Red Dead Redemption has received a large number of awards. It won several Game of the Year awards from media outlets such as GameSpy, GameSpot, Good Game, Computer and Video Games, and Machinima, among others. The game's music also received awards for its original score from GameSpot, Machinima.com, and Spike TV. José González also received an award from Spike for his original song "Far Away". The graphics received honors at the Korean Games Conference, and from the television program Good Game. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare also received Best Downloadable content awards from Spike TV, G4 TV and Game Revolution. At the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, Red Dead Redemption won the Game of the Year, Best Song in a Game ("Far Away" by José González), Best Original Score and Best DLC (Undead Nightmare) awards. Red Dead Redemption was not nominated for any of the jury based awards at the BAFTA Video Game Awards due to Rockstar's refusal to submit the title for consideration; BAFTA cannot enter games without permission from the developers and publishers. |} John Marston GameSpot and IGN named John Marston the year's best new character. He also was a nominee for character and voice acting awards at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards and 14th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. In 2013, Complex remembered Rob Wiethoff's voice acting performance as the second best in a video game. Network World stated John "is a complicated character, having been a bad person who is trying to make things right." The New York Times stated that "John and his creators conjure such a convincing, cohesive and enthralling re-imagination of the real world that it sets a new standard for sophistication and ambition in electronic gaming." Marston has been included in multiple lists of top video game character traits. GamesRadar placed the character fifth in their list of best game characters of the generation, and GameSpy called John Marston a noticeable omission from the 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition s top 50 video game characters. Legacy Critics concurred that Red Dead Redemption was one of the best games of the seventh generation era of video game consoles. Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer wrote that he hoped the eighth generation of consoles would offer "similarly powerful experiences". IGN ranked the game third on its 2011 list of the top modern video games, and seventh on its 2014 list of the best games of the generation. GamesRadar listed Red Dead Redemption at second on its list of the best games of all time, in February 2013, and sixth on its list of the best video game stories, in July 2013. In September 2013, the game was ranked the fifth best PlayStation 3 game, and the seventh best Xbox 360 game, by IGN. In November 2013, the game was ranked at fourth and eighth place on Eurogamer and Hardcore Gamer s list of the best games of the generation, respectively. In January 2014, Computer and Video Games ranked the game at number fifteen on its list of the best games of the generation. In June 2014, the game placed at number five on IGN's list of the "Games of a Generation: Your Top 100" as voted by readers of the site. In August 2014, the game placed seventh on Good Game s Top 100 list. PlayStation Official Magazine declared Red Dead Redemption the third best PlayStation 3 game of all time in March 2015.Hall of Fame listing, PlayStation Official Magazine issue 107, Future Publishing, March 2015 In July 2015, the game placed 10th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. Prequel In March 2013, Karl Slatoff, president of Take-Two Interactive, revealed that the company has an "extensive pipeline of unannounced titles in development" and mentioned that the Red Dead franchise was important to the company. Concept art for a future game in the series was reportedly leaked online in April 2016. Images released by Rockstar in October 2016 sparked speculation regarding a sequel. The game, Red Dead Redemption 2, was officially announced by Rockstar that same month and was released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018. References Notes Footnotes * * * }} Further reading * External links * * Category:2010 video games Category:Action-adventure games Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Euphoria (software) games Category:Interactive Achievement Award winners Category:Motion capture in video games Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games Category:Open world video games Category:PlayStation 3 games Category:Red Dead Category:Red Dead Redemption Category:Rockstar Advanced Game Engine games Category:Rockstar Games Category:Take-Two Interactive games Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Video games set in the 1910s Category:Video games set in fictional populated places Category:Video games set in Mexico Category:Video games set in the United States Category:Video games with downloadable content Category:Video games with expansion packs Category:Video games with time manipulation Category:Western (genre) video games Category:Works about atonement Category:Xbox 360 games Category:Xbox One X enhanced games